A plumber comes out between £200 and £480 a day across the guides, and the spread is not a regional effect. MyBuilder prints £325 to £375 on its plumber page and £320 to £480 in its own trade table, two different answers from one publisher.
Day rate
£200 to £480 a day
Hourly rate
£30 to £60 an hour
All figures are labour only, before materials. Whether VAT comes on top depends on whether the trade is VAT registered, so ask. The band is the widest span across the guides listed, not an average, and not a price anyone is committed to.
Pipework, bathrooms and kitchens, heating, and anything that has to be Gas Safe registered.
These are the published figures, copied as they stand rather than averaged into one number. Read down the column and you can see how far apart they sit.
Checkatrade, How much do tradespeople cost in the UK in 2026
Day: £320 to £480
Hour: £40 to £60
Last updated April 2026, checked 13 August 2026.
MyBuilder, Plumber hourly rates in 2026
Day: £325 to £375
Hour: £40 to £60
MyBuilder prints £320 to £480 for a plumber in the trade table on its builder page, so the same publisher gives two different plumber day rates.
No date on the page, 2026 in the title, checked 13 August 2026.
Superscript, What are tradesperson pay rates for 2026
Day: £200 to £300
Hour: £30 to £55
Published 16 February 2026, checked 13 August 2026.
These are three publishers, not three surveys of what people actually paid. Four ranges are identical in the Checkatrade and MyBuilder trade tables, and Superscript names Checkatrade as one of its own inputs. Where the guides agree, that agreement carries less weight than it looks like it does. The day rates overview sets out which ranges overlap and what each publisher says it used.
None of the three guides publishes a London plumber rate. Checkatrade says only that prices in London are higher than elsewhere in the UK, without a figure. Anyone quoting a precise London plumber day rate is not reading it off these sources, so treat it as a claim to check rather than a benchmark.
Source: Checkatrade, How much do tradespeople cost in the UK in 2026 (Last updated April 2026), checked 13 August 2026.
No published London uplift survives its own source. MyBuilder claims 20 to 40% above the national average and then prints a regional table on the same page showing London at £233 against Manchester at £196, a gap of about 19%. That is why this site publishes no single London percentage.
Source: MyBuilder, How much is a builder day rate in 2026 (No date on the page, 2026 in the title), checked 13 August 2026.
The full contradiction, with the regional table it rests on, is on the day rates overview. Regional differences across project types are set out in renovation costs by region.
On a day rate the risk that the job runs long sits with you; on a fixed price it sits with the trade. Ask for a fixed price wherever the scope can be written down, and keep the day rate for work where nobody can say what is behind the wall until it is open.
A bathroom or kitchen fit-out has a scope you can write down, so it prices as a fixed job and should. Keep the day rate for chasing a leak, a boiler fault or anything behind a wall, where the first hour is diagnosis rather than repair.
Whichever model you agree, put it in writing before the first morning. The contract checklist lists what a written agreement needs to cover, why quotes differ explains the gaps that make two prices for the same job look nothing alike, and the day rates overview sets out when each model is the honest one.
A day rate is labour and nothing else. Materials, VAT, waste, scaffolding, the other trades on site, the minimum charge on a short visit and a contingency for what nobody priced all sit on top of it, and together they routinely add more than the labour band itself.
Each of those is priced out, with its source, on the day rates overview. The buffer has a page of its own in renovation contingency, and skips are priced in skip hire cost.
A day rate on its own tells you very little, because the number that matters is days multiplied by rate, plus everything above. Price the whole job first, then use the day rate to sense check the labour line inside it.
Most projects need several of these on site, each on their own rate. The day rates overview puts all six side by side.
Rate guides are republished without notice, so every figure here carries the date it was checked. Where a guide contradicts itself, this page shows both numbers rather than picking the flattering one. A written quote from a local trade beats all of it.
Cost guides written about one job print their own trade rates for that job, taken from the guide that priced it, so a figure on a project page here can sit inside the band above or a little outside it. The band on this page is the widest span across three general rate guides; a project page reads the guide that priced that project, which sets its own rates on its own date. Where two pages differ, each says which guide it read and on what date. The rates behind a single job are worked out in DIY savings and in load-bearing wall removal cost.
How this site handles prices and sources is set out in how we price.
The published figures run from £200 to £480 a day for labour only. The spread is not a regional effect: MyBuilder prints £325 to £375 on its plumber page and £320 to £480 in the trade table on its builder page, two different answers from one publisher.
Checkatrade attributes it to the training and qualifications needed to work with gas or electricity, and MyBuilder adds the mandatory registration behind those trades along with the insurance cost that follows from the safety consequences of getting it wrong. Gas work has to be carried out by someone Gas Safe registered, which is a legal requirement rather than a preference.
It does not need to be. A fit-out has a scope you can write down, so it prices as a fixed job, and the risk of it running long then sits with the plumber rather than with you. Keep the day rate for chasing a leak, a boiler fault or anything behind a wall, where the first hour is diagnosis rather than repair.
None of the three guides checked for this page publishes a London plumber rate. Checkatrade says only that prices in London are higher than elsewhere in the UK, without giving a figure or a percentage. Anyone quoting a precise London plumber day rate is not reading it off these sources, so treat it as a claim to check against local quotes.